Today, consumers are enjoying better value from broadband services as a result of the additional choices in a highly competitive multichannel video marketplace. Through these broadband services, consumers are experiencing higher quality programming and more advanced technology. Still, telecommunication companies continue to invest in deploying new broadband networks to provide interactive services for entertainment, communication and lifestyle applications.
While there are multiple network structures capable of supporting broadband services, providers of such networks continue to study how to integrate and take advantage of fiber optic network structures. As a result, an ever increasing percentage of broadband providers are investing in fiber optic network structures to support both present and future bandwidth requirements. For example, CATV (cable television), HDTV (high definition television), VoIP (voice over internet protocol), and broadband internet are some of the most common applications now being supported by fiber optic networks, in some cases directly to the home (FTTH—Fiber to the Home).
Competition is crucial for promoting consumer welfare and spurring innovation and investment in broadband access networks. Competition provides consumers the benefits of choice, better service and lower prices. This competition has induced broadband providers to invest in the above-mentioned network upgrades. Much of the population is able to choose from two providers for very high peak speeds (providers with fiber to the premises (FTTP) and DOCSIS 3.0 infrastructure). However, providers offering fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) and then DSL from the node to the premises, while potentially much faster than traditional DSL, may not be able to match the peak speeds offered by FTTP and DOCSIS 3.0. Accordingly, telephone companies have invested in deploying fiber to the home (FTTH).
The speeds of fiber optic and copper cables are both limited by length, but copper is much more sharply limited in this respect. Replacing at least part of the copper links in a network with fiber shortens the remaining copper segments and thereby allows the networks to run much faster. Fiber configurations that bring fiber right into the building can offer the highest speeds since the remaining segments can use standard Ethernet or coaxial cable. Fiber configurations that transition to copper in a street cabinet are generally too far from the users for standard Ethernet configurations over existing copper cabling. FTTH extends from the central office to the subscriber's living or working space. Once at the subscriber's living or working space, the signal may be conveyed throughout the space using any means, including twisted pair, coaxial cable, wireless, power line communication, or optical fiber.
There are two competing optical distribution network architectures. Active optical networks rely on electrically powered equipment to distribute the signal, such as a switch, router, or multiplexer. A passive optical network (PON) is a point-to-multipoint, fiber to the premises network architecture in which unpowered optical splitters are used to enable a single optical fiber to serve multiple premises. Once on private property, the signal typically travels the final distance to the end user's equipment using an electrical format.
While FTTH has its advantage with raw capacity, it suffers from high cost and technology limitations. Satellite has the advantage of providing all digital content and plenty of capacity. However, satellite also has a high infrastructure and CPE cost. Cable companies rely on hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC), which combines optical fiber and coaxial cable. The fiber optic network extends from the headend of the cable operator network to a hub in a neighborhood, and finally to a fiber optic node that typically serves anywhere from 25 to 2000 homes.
To compete against the technologies of telephony companies and satellite television companies, cable companies need to capitalize on the advantages the HFC network while minimizing any disadvantages. If HFC can be leveraged to an entire customer base, customer loyalty will be maintained while preserving existing capital investment.
Accordingly, it can be seen that there is a need for a combined optical and coaxial hub for routing an upstream signal from a two-way digital output to an existing hybrid fiber coaxial network.